I dunno man, I've had those exact speakers and loved them and all the reviews I ever read were glowing as well. I wouldn't say they aren't known for having great sound at all, either the specific line or especially the company that made them.
I guess I was rather ambiguous in my previous post, I wasn't saying that the Focal XS Book was bad, far from it actually. It was more that I was going all audio-feely thinking about buying a Ghent Audio ICEPower power amp (had a Calyx CTI in mind as well) + Usher S-520 (was also looking at the higher end Peachtree Audio DS5.5 bookshelf speakers. Ended up with a pair of powered speakers, so I felt I was being audio-feely enough.
I've been listening to the XS Book the whole day and quite like its presentation of music, more neutral'ish highs, good mildly recessed mids with good amount of mid-bass thump.....though lower lows are rolled off. Played some games and I find it surprisingly great sounding with the XS Book.
Is that a AKG K812 on your desk? If so, how do you like them? Is it as bright as people say (ie. Tyll)? And how does it compare to the HD-800?
You're asking the wrong guy, I love sparkly highs! I don't find my earlier gen (serial number <10k) HD800 bright at all, yes, there's some extended treble but I wouldn't say it's at all bright. Same goes with the AKG K812 (serial number >12k), very nice sparkle, smaller soundstage than the HD800, great for more enclosed or intimate audio setting, like a Jazz club compared to the concert hall width and height of the HD800's soundstage. I can't say I prefer one over the other, both are awesome for different genres of music. BTW, I have a Grado GS1000i and an Audio Technica ATH-AD2000 and I would describe them as being quite sparkly, almost to the point of being bright.....almost, not quite. I did say I have a high tolerance for......well, highs.
